Discussion

ONCE &amp; FOR ALL..THE BEST PAELLA &amp; SANGRIA?

Okay..fellow chowhounds, it's my birthday next week and I am in search for the BEST PAELLA and SANGRIA. I have had it at Sevilla in the Village many times, and it's good there, but I am looking for the best. I read through the search for paella, and a few people mentioned Solera...what other suggestions are out there? Also, my wife thinks we should go to an upscale Gramery Tavern type place for dessert only afterwards...any other desert suggestions would be appreciated too...

It says on the menu that it takes 45 minutes for it, but the wait is well worth every second. By far the best rendition I've had (chock full of seafood, chicken and chorizo and the rice is unbelievably smooth). I can't say the sangria is anything more than average, but their margaritas are potent and they just redid the bar area and expanded.

Agreed. As one who has lived in the metro area for my entire life and tried my fair share of places in all of the boroughs, I can tell you that you haven't had Portugese/Spanish until you've been to Newark. Spanish Tavern has the best garlic shrimp I've ever had. Iberia and Iberian peninsula are excellent as well. Order the paella and you' ll be taking home your leftovers in buffet pans--

Rachel and I went to Spanish Sangria this evening -- thanks for the recommendation. Its a solid Spanish restaurant, to be sure.

Unlike Casa Vasca (which remains my favorite) Spanish Sangria is apparently is still primarily a local haunt -- the place has little ambiance at all, but obviously thats not why people go there. Parking is strictly street, most people park around the corner under a highway overpass. The restaurant is in the industrial part of Ironbound, unlike Casa Vasca which is in a residental neighborhood and has its own parking lot. Not exactly the most charming part of town (it looks like something out of the Sopranos) but apparently someone does watch your car. Another plus about Spanish Sangria is that its a huge restaurant, and according to the patrons the place doesnt get too packed even on saturday nights -- and again unlike Casa Vasca, which you might have to wait up to a half an hour in the smoky bar waiting for a table.

You start off with a complimentary bowl of soup, on sundays apparantly you get the Galician soup, which is an escarole/bean thing in a chicken broth with potatoes and a little bit of ham in it. It wasnt too salty, very tasty, great start. For appetizer we ordered the spanish chorizo , a very generous portion of thinly sliced pork sausage that was sauteed very simply in a pan, with not too much oily residue and had a nice crispness to it -- excellently prepared and great quality meat. We actually ended up sharing some with a couple at an adjoining table, who had the garlic mushrooms and gave us some of theirs in exchange -- again, huge appetizer portion. The mushrooms were just plain white mushrooms, but they were absolutely mind-blowing in their garlicyness and it had exactly the right amount of oil. Both these apps went great with the fresh dinner rolls.

Main courses -- I had the camarrones ajillo (shrimp with garlic sauce) and Rachel had the pollo ajillo (chicken in garlic sauce) -- our two benchmark dishes for testing out Spanish/Portuguese places. Shrimps were excellent, very garlicy, medium sized, butterflied, and broiled in a "plancha" pan wih oil which we were very happy to sop up with the bread. Rachel's dish was similar but chicken peices that were flash-fried, then sauteed in the garlic and oil. Chicken meat was -slightly- overdone, rachel said it didnt quite have enough garlic compared to the shrimp but I liked it well enough. The fried potatoes (papa frita) were sliced just to the right thickness and were nice and crispy -- if a restaurant blows this, I dont go back (Fornos of Newark=NO! Abort mission!). Yellow rice was good but I dont think it was saffron rice, probably tumeric -- too yellow.

The real signature dish of the house, which we found out due to its dramatic presentation, was the shrimp in wine sauce, which consists of jumbo shrimps in a sizzling platter in a wine/garlic sauce. I know this sounds like a real basic dish, but when we saw the waiters carry this to the next table we immediately both said "this is what I am ordering next time!". The odor wafting down our way defied description, it smelled that good.

We of course had the namesake sangria, although we had the white stuff and not the red. Very fruity, very boozy, definitely want to try the red the next time.

We bypassed coffee and dessert and went (per recoommendation of our dining companions at the table next to us) to TEIXEIRA's bakery, where we had some phenomenally good cappucino (with real whipped cream!) and brought home some killer cheesecake and cannoli. The place was easy to find cause you can smell the bread baking WAY down the street. The place appeared to have great rolls and sweet portuguese bread too.

My best Paellas have come from La Paella on 9th street bet. 3rd and 2nd aves. They do it in a shallow dish and and broil the top, which in my opinion is how it should be done. You get that nice layer of crispy rice sticking to the pan.

There are several varieties of Paella, and lots of tapas to chose from, but the sangria is quite ordinary.

I have to strongly disagree with that place. I had there paella and when we got it, it was mostly squid. We mentioned this to the server and they pretty much said tough take it or leave it. I think it was late and maybe they ran out of the other ingredient but no one gave us any explanation either. That was the first and last time we went there. It WAS when they first opened so perhaps it's changed. BUT as they say you are only as good as your last meal.

according to the rules of this site i am telling you now that i supervise several restaurants in the new york area.

that said, in response to your post about paella and sangria i can tell you this. the best paella i have had in the city and keep in mind that three of my restaurants serve it, would have to be el faro down town on greenwich st.

they don't take reservations and it get's very crowded but it's worth the wait.

as far as the sangria question, my impartial opinion is that we do some of the best sangria at our places. since the rules prohibit any direct advertising or plugging, you can email me directly and i'll gladly give you the particulars.

incidently, our paella is excellent, but doesn't quite match up to el faro.

I did mention Sevilla in my post saying I have been there many many times, but was looking for better...It looks like we are going to try El Faro on greenwich, as this sounds like an interesting post, will write back and report after we go and let you know all the particulars...Still waiting for some dessert suggestions, my time is running out.....thanks chowhounds!